Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Tuesday, May 31, 2005 |
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Arunkumar Bhatt
MUMBAI: The State-wide "Rasta roko" agitation against power shortage and load shedding in Maharashtra organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party took a violent turn on Monday as electricity generation fell in the State. In Wardha, protestors ransacked the office of the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) and poured oil on its deputy superintendent, said Energy Minister Dilip Walse-Patil in Mumbai. BJP spokesman Madhu Chavan admitted that the MSEB office was attacked and his face blackened. He told presspersons here that a procession to the MSEB office had been taken out and that the board official did not come forward to accept the protestors' memorandum. He alleged that the police had lathi-charged the processionists, injuring about 50 party workers including, Wardha MP Suresh Waghmare. Mr. Chavan said the police had arrested 1.26 lakh persons at about 467 places in the State, including all top leaders of the party. The BJP leader in the State Assembly, Gopinath Munde, was arrested at Phulambri near Aurangabad, while State BJP president Nitin Gadkari was arrested in Nagpur. In Phulambri, agitators damaged two buses of the State transport. Seven persons were arrested. Mr. Munde alleged that the Government was trying to suppress the popular agitation and warned that the BJP would exact revenge in the same way.
Situation worsens
Mr. Walse-Patil admitted that the power situation in Maharashtra had worsened since Sunday since power generation from the Koyana hydel project had dropped by 900 MW due to depleting water level in the reservoir. He said the situation would improve in a couple of days as attempts would be made to improve generation elsewhere. He said power generation at Koyana had to be closed as water was being supplied for drinking. Mr. Munde had alleged on Sunday that the power shortage in the State had gone up because of the stoppage of the Koyana project. He said that with power generation dropping by about 1000 MW at Koyana, the shortage had crossed 3700 MW. This, he had said, would rise further if it did not rain in time. Mr. Munde said the Deshmukh Government was responsible for the power shortage. The Congress-NCP coalition did nothing to augment power generation capacity. Mr. Walse-Patil criticised the BJP for taking to the streets. He said that the present power shortage did not occur overnight.
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